Many fans hoping to get tickets for one of Kraftwerk's eight gigs at the Tate Modern have been left fuming after the online booking service crashed.

Tickets for next year's London shows went on sale at 7.30am, and should have been available to buy either online or by phone.

With the online booking service out of action, people were forced to try to order by phone - with many being met with just the engaged tone.

Fans - who took to social media to voice their displeasure - either heard the tone, a message telling them to try again later, or another message telling them they had dialled the wrong number.

The fact that the Tate had no telephone queuing system meant people could not simply hold, and had to keep on dialling in the hope of getting through.

One fan tweeted: "It'd be great if there weren't any Kraftwerk gigs and this whole ticket fiasco turned out to be some kind of post-modern art happening."

Another said: "Can't wait for the public inquiry into what went wrong with #kraftwerk ticket acquisitions."

A Twitter user called Neil added: "You can recreate the Kraftwerk live experience by listening to Kraftwerk whilst looking at a far away picture of Kraftwerk."

The band's tracks include Showroom Dummies, Robots and The Man-Machine

Another disgruntled fan, Craig Chappell, 49, told Sky News: "There are some selected comments on the Tate Modern Facebook page containing words such as "amateurish" and "disrepectful" as well as threats to cancel their membership to Friends Of The Tate Modern.

At 1pm the online booking service was still down and the booking line was still engaged.

The Tate was not immediately available for comment, as the general phone number was also engaged.

Kraftwerk will be performing their albums in chronological order from Autobahn onwards through releases such as Trans-Europe Express, The Man Machine and finishing with their most recent collection, Tour De France Soundracks.

The German band were at the forefront of synthesiser pop and had a huge influence on dance music in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

They had chart hits with tracks such as Autobahn and had a UK number one single with The Model.

Coldplay later took the main riff from their 1981 track Computer Love for their single Talk.

Kraftwerk's Tate shows run from February 6 to February 14, with no performance on the Sunday.